Culture
Staff Sergeant Becky Nelson
3
With Emphasis on Transcultural Encounters
and Exchanges
NOT FOR SALE
In this photo, a South Korean child who is part of an English language class is having fun playing
with a U.S. serviceman dressed in plain clothes. The U.S. military sponsors many programs that
promote cultural exchange and understanding such as the Good Neighbor Program and English
Dream Camps. The serviceman’s attempt to connect with this South Korean child represents one
of hundreds of millions of transcultural encounters and exchanges that have taken place between
American soldiers and South Koreans. The U.S. military has had a presence in Korea for the past
65 years, dating back to the end of World War II. Over that time, an estimated 7.5 million U.S.
servicemen and women have served in South Korea and, in the process, they have encountered
and interacted with countless numbers of South Koreans. Sociologists think of these interactions
and encounters as transcultural because the parties have forged relationships that cross and blur
existing cultural boundaries, and opened people in both countries up to transformation.
In this chapter, we consider how sociologists think about culture and
about transcultural encounters and exchanges (hereafter referred
to as just transcultural encounters). We apply the sociological
framework to understand how such encounters influence and
change the people and cultures involved. To illustrate, we consider examples that relate to the United States and South Korea
and exchanges between people from both countries. Keep in mind
though that we can use the sociological framework to think about
any culture and any transcultural encounter.
The term transcultural alerts us to the fact that cultures do
not exist in isolation. For the entire history of humanity, people
from different cultures have crossed borders, boundaries, and
spaces to encounter and interact with one another. In the process,
they have confronted, negotiated, and managed differences.
Transcultural encounters drive globalization—the ever-increasing
flow of goods, services, money, technology, information, and other
cultural items across national boundaries (see “No Border, No
Boundaries”).
The boundary crossings are very often facilitated by organizations that disregard cultural boundaries to achieve some valued
goal such as achieving national security (the U.S. military in 140
countries), to sell products (Korean-based Samsung with 337 offices
in 58 countries [Samsung 2013]), to share videos on a global scale
(YouTube, which facilitated 1.22 billion views of the video “Gangnam
Style”), and to educate beyond the classroom (universities that
sponsor 3.0 million study-abroad experiences worldwide each year
[Braintrack 2013]).
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Chris Caldeira
Why Focus on Transcultural Exchanges and Encounters?
This billboard announces a new version of one of the world’s
most popular smartphones. By now, the Samsung Galaxy SIII
is likely considered old technology. Samsung, a transnational
organization that competes fiercely with Apple, releases new
versions of its smartphones every eight months. Samsung
facilitates transcultural encounters because it offers consumers
digital technologies that allow them to communicate across
geographic borders albeit virtually.
globalization The ever-increasing flow of goods, services,
money, people, technology, information, and other cultural items
across political boundaries, most notably countries.
j
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No Borders, No Boundaries Countries Where the Song
“Gangnam Style” Topped Music Charts
where the song place among the top 50, but not number 1.
The popularity of “Gangnam Style” can also be measured
by the record number of views on YouTube, over 1.2 billion.
© Cengage Learning 2015
The countries highlighted in red are those where the song
“Gangnam Style,” by Korean artists Psy, topped the charts
at number one. The countries highlighted in blue are those
Number 1 on charts
On chart, not number 1
FiguRE 3.1 Countries Where Song “Gangsum Style” Topped Chart at Number 1 or In Top 50
Source of data: Wikipedia (2013); Lee and Nakashima (2012).
Defining and Describing Cultures
CORE CONCEPT 1 Culture is an important, yet elusive concept that consists of material and nonmaterial
components.
Sociologists define culture as the way of life of a people. To
be more specific, culture includes the shared and humancreated strategies for adapting and responding to one’s
surroundings. These strategies include the invention of the
automobile as a strategy for transporting people (and their
possessions) from one point to another; the use of the
high-five gesture as a strategy for celebrating some accomplishment with others; and the invention of YouTube as a
strategy for “entertaining, inspiring, and informing” others through video.
culture The way of life of a people; more specifically, the
human-created strategies for adjusting to their surroundings
and to those creatures (including humans) that are part of those
surroundings.
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A culture can be something as vast as a national culture (U.S. or Korean culture) or it can be something much
smaller in scale, such as the culture of a family, a school,
a workplace, or even a coffee shop. In our everyday use of
the word culture, we often use it in reference to differences
and misunderstandings: “The cultures of X and Y are very
different”; “There is a culture gap between X and Y”; “It
is a shock to come from X and live in Y.” In light of the
ways we apply the word, we may be surprised to learn that
it is not so easy to identify and describe a culture. Challenges revolve around the following questions:
●
●
How do you describe a culture? To put it another way,
is it possible to offer a description of something so vast
as the way of life of an entire people? What exactly is
American or Korean culture?
How do we know who belongs to a culture? To what
culture does a person who appears Korean but who
has lived in the United States most of his or her life
belong? Is everyone who grows up in Korea considered
Korean, no matter their physical appearance? Are
ethnic Koreans who live in Mexico and speak Spanish
considered Korean?
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Components of Culture 49
●
What are the distinguishing characteristics that set one
culture apart from others? Is eating rice for breakfast a
behavior that makes someone Korean? Does an ability
to speak the Korean language make someone Korean?
Does an American who learns to dance “Gangnam
Style” become a little bit Korean?
The point of these questions is to illustrate culture’s
elusive and dynamic qualities. After all, cultures do not
exist in isolation; they “bump up against one another and
transform each other” (James Madison College 2013) and,
as a result, they are always evolving. Still, culture acts as
a blueprint of sorts that guides, and in some cases, even
determines how people think and behave.
Components of Culture
Culture consists of material and nonmaterial components. Material culture consists of all the natural and
human-created objects to which people have attached
meaning. Material culture includes plants, trees, natural
resources, dogs, cars, trucks, microwave ovens, computers,
and smartphones. When sociologists think about material culture, they consider the uses to which an item is
put and the meanings assigned by the people who use it
(Rohner 1984).
Learning the meanings that people assign to material
culture helps sociologists grasp the significance of those
objects. Bath towels are examples of material culture. The
meanings people assign to them vary and shift according
to context. From an American point of view, a bath towel
is something used to wipe off water from the body or to
cover the body after showering, especially when children
are around. An American woman visiting Korea describes
walking into a public bathhouse and learning that bath
towels have different meanings:
Looking around, I noticed that all the women were completely naked—at a Korean bath, you check your modesty
at the door, and the towel is for scrubbing, not drying
or draping. After stripping down, I tentatively stepped
through steamy glass doors, into the world of the baths—
a large, noisy, cheerful area where about 100 women of
all ages and small children of both sexes were scrubbing,
chatting, and soaking. To one side were rows of washing
stations, with faucets, hand showers, and mirrors set low
to the ground. (Koreans, like Japanese, sit while washing.)
(McClane 2000)
This firsthand account suggests that Korean women do not
define a bath towel (material culture) as something used
to cover themselves when in a public setting with young
children because they are influenced by the nonmaterial
component of Korean culture, which encompasses beliefs,
values, norms, symbols, and language.
Beliefs
Beliefs are conceptions that people accept as true, concerning how the world operates and where the individual fits in
relationship to others. Beliefs can be rooted in blind faith,
experience, tradition, or in science. Whatever their accuracy
or origins, beliefs can exert powerful influences on actions
as they are used to justify behavior, ranging from the most
generous to the most violent. Koreans, for example, believe
that it is fine for young children of both sexes to bathe with
their mothers, grandmothers, and other women in a public
bathhouse. Two British tourists visiting a South Korean bathhouse describe the belief-shaking encounter this way: “The
most amazing thing is the range of ages here, from grandmother to babies, all enjoying the same space. . . . It takes a
few trips here to get used to walking around naked. . . . And
[in Britain] you never see your own grandmother naked . . .”
(ABC News/Travel 2008).
Values
A second component of nonmaterial culture is values:
general, shared conceptions of what is good, right, appropriate, worthwhile, and important with regard to conduct,
appearance, and states of being. One important study on
values identified 36 values that people everywhere share
to differing degrees, including the values of freedom,
happiness, true friendship, broad-mindedness, cleanliness, obedience, and national security. The study suggested that societies are distinguished from one another
not according to which values are present in one society
and absent in another, but rather, according to which
values are the most cherished and dominant (Rokeach
1973). Americans, for example, place higher value on the
individual, whereas Koreans place higher value on the
group. These values manifest themselves in the American
preference to bathe alone and the Korean preference to
share the experience with others in public bathhouses,
including relatives of all ages.
Sports offer further insights about a culture’s values.
The national sport of South Korea is tae kwon do. That
sport places value on physical power when it is used in
material culture All the natural and human-created objects to
which people have attached meaning.
beliefs Conceptions that people accept as true, concerning how
the world operates and where the individual fits in relationship to
others.
nonmaterial culture The nonphysical creations that people
cannot hold or see.
values General, shared conceptions of what is good, right,
appropriate, worthwhile, and important with regard to conduct,
appearance, and states of being.
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Chapter 3 Culture
Chris Caldeira
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The number of members, and the choreography of Girls’
Generation and other K-pop groups, reflect the higher value
Koreans place on the group relative to the individual. While the
nine girls who make up Girls’ Generation are not clones of each
other, they work to present themselves as a cohesive whole. There
is no lead singer and the group showcases a highly choreographed
style rather than individual personalities (Seabrook 2012).
self-defense and only in an amount necessary to gain control over an aggressor. Tae kwon do athletes also value
freedom, justice, and using power to build a better world.
By contrast, football—arguably the national sport of the
United States—places a high value on aggression. Hard
hits to opponents are highly valued and replayed as game
highlights. The object of the American football game is to
advance the ball into “enemy” territory and score by invading an opponent’s end zone.
Norms
Norms are written and unwritten rules that specify
behaviors appropriate and inappropriate to a particular
social situation. Examples of written norms are rules that
appear in college student handbooks, on signs in restaurants (No Smoking Section), and on garage doors of automobile repair centers (Honk Horn to Open). Unwritten
norms exist for virtually every kind of situation: wash
your hands before preparing food; do not hold hands
with a friend of the same sex in public; leave at least a
20 percent tip for waiters; remove your shoes before entering the house.
norms Written and unwritten rules that specify behaviors
appropriate and inappropriate to a particular social situation.
folkways Norms that apply to the mundane aspects or details of
daily life.
Sociologists gain insight into norms from observing
how people in a particular setting are behaving. American
sociologists studying Korean bathhouses would be struck
by the public nature of the bath, the relaxed and casual
relationships among nude children and adult women, the
lack of self-consciousness, and acceptance of one’s own
body and others’ bodies. One Western woman who went
with her Korean sister-in-law to a bathhouse observed that
her sister-in-law “just stripped and did likewise to her son.
She didn’t notice my very hesitant moves to do the same.
. . . I felt so weird and exposed, but at the same time tried
not to show it, as everyone seemed to be quite comfortable
like that” (Chung 2003).
When studying norms governing behavior, sociologists distinguish between folkways and mores. Folkways
are norms that apply to the mundane aspects or details of
daily life: when and what to eat, how to greet someone,
how long the workday should be, how many times caregivers should change babies diapers each day. As sociologist
William Graham Sumner (1907) noted, “Folkways give us
discipline and support of routine and habit”; if we were
forced constantly to make decisions about these details,
“the burden would be unbearable” (p. 92). Generally, we
go about everyday life without asking why until something reminds us, or forces us to see, that other ways are
possible.
Consider the folkways that govern how a meal is typically eaten at Korean and American dinner tables. In
Korea, diners do not pass items to one another, except to
small children. Instead, they reach and stretch across one
another and use their chopsticks to lift small portions from
serving bowls to individual rice bowls or directly to their
mouths. The Korean norms of table etiquette—reaching
across instead of passing, having no clear place settings,
and using the same utensils to eat and serve oneself food
from platters and bowls—deemphasize the individual and
reinforce the greater importance of the group.
Americans follow different dining folkways. They have
individual place settings, marked clearly by place mats or
blocked off by eating utensils. It is considered impolite to
reach across another person’s space and to use personal
utensils to take food from the communal serving bowls.
Instead, diners pass items around the table and use special serving utensils. That Americans have clearly marked
eating spaces, do not typically trespass into other diners’
spaces, and use separate utensils to take food reinforces
values about the importance of the individual.
Often, cultural guides list folkways that foreign travelers should follow when visiting a particular country.
When the U.S. military introduced a new housing policy
in 2010 that allowed military families to live off base in
housing complexes with Korean neighbors, it created culturally oriented videos to educate servicewomen and men
about Korean folkways, pointing out that “we are guests”
in Korea and not to expect Koreans to make concessions
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Components of Culture 51
to American ways of doing things. The videos titled
“Being a Good Neighbor” describe a number of Korean
folkways:
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Dogs in Korea are likely tiny things that you can carry
in your pocket so big dogs are a new phenomenon,
especially for children. Keep your dogs on a leash.
Barbeques are a no-no. Koreans see them as fire hazards,
and the smoke is a nuisance.
Recycling is very important in Korea. It is a way of life
enforced by law, and citizens pay to discard of items
that cannot be recycled (2nd Infantry Division 2010)
Mores are norms that people define as essential to the
well-being of a group. People who violate mores are
usually punished severely: They may be ostracized, institutionalized in prisons or mental hospitals, sentenced to
physical punishment, or condemned to die. In contrast
to folkways, mores are regarded as “the only way” or “the
truth” and as thus are unchangeable. Most Americans,
for example, have strong mores against public nudity,
especially adult nudity in the presence of children. They
believe that children should be shielded from seeing
adults naked and that naked children are vulnerable when
around adults who are also nude. Koreans, on the other
hand, do not view adult–child nakedness, in the right
context, to be morally wrong or as presenting a danger to
children. Instead, they view the body as something to be
accepted for what it is. Americans who visit Korean bathhouses report, to their surprise, that they adjust quickly to
social nudity and come to see being naked among others
of all ages as unremarkable.
Symbols
Symbols are any kinds of physical or other phenomena—
words, objects, sounds, feelings, odors, gestures, behaviors—
to which people assign names and meanings. The meanings
assigned are not immediately evident because meaning can
vary by context. As we have seen, the act of a grandmother
and child bathing together has much different meaning in
the context of a Korean bathhouse than in the context of
American bathroom.
Language is a symbol system involving the use of
sounds, gestures (in the case of sign language), and/or
characters (such as letters or pictures) to convey meaning.
When people learn language, they learn a symbol system. Those learning spoken languages must learn the
agreed-upon sounds that convey words, and they must
learn rules about how to order words. English-language
speakers learn to arrange words in subject-verb-object
order (We are reading the book). Koreans, on the other
hand, follow a subject-object-verb format (We book are
reading). As another example, rules governing word
order apply to stating first and last names. Consider
that Koreans tend to identify themselves by stating their
Chris Caldeira
●
The meaning that has been assigned to what appears to be
golden arches is not self-evident. In 1953 when the aches first
appeared people had to learn that it was the symbol for a
McDonald’s. Now for most people around the world the golden
arches is a symbol of the transnational corporation McDonald’s.
family name first and then their given name. In effect,
the family name is given precedence over the individual’s
first name.
While we have a reviewed set of concepts for thinking about and describing the components of any culture,
the real challenges lie with establishing characteristics
that distinguish one culture from others. In this regard,
anyone who travels to Iran and then Korea will notice
that the length of women’s skirts is “strikingly different.” Everyone who travels to South Korea will no doubt
observe that rice is a very common breakfast food; they
will also notice some Koreans eating cereal or donuts. The
point is that we can identify characteristics that seem to
distinguish one culture from another. Yet establishing
the extent to which everyone associated with that culture
behaves and thinks in the same ways is “distressingly
difficult” (Wallerstein 1990). In other words, just when
you think you have identified a quality that sets a culture
apart from another, too many exceptions to the rule present themselves.
Because it is impossible to describe a way of life (e.g.,
culture) that everyone in a society shares in all its aspects, we
mores Norms that people define as critical to the well-being of a
group. Violation of mores can result in severe forms of punishment.
language A symbol system involving the use of sounds, gestures
(signing), and/or characters (such as letters or pictures) to convey
meaning.
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Chapter 3 Culture
David McNally (USAG-Yongsan)
Taking Action
must ask what exactly holds people who believe they constitute a culture together? One answer is cultural anchors
that unite a people. Cultural anchors are things—material
(a color, a mascot, a book) or nonmaterial (a belief, value,
norms, cherished symbol)—that elicit broad consensus
about their importance but also can withstand debate and
dissent about their exact meaning (Ghaziani and Baldassarri 2011). For the United States, one cultural anchor is
the high value placed on freedom—whether it be freedom
to pursue happiness, a religion, a particular lifestyle, or to
just be oneself. As one measure of its importance, consider
that “freedom” is presented as the reason the United States
engages in wars and sends its soldiers all over the world.
For South Koreans, one cultural anchor is the celebrated
writing system known as hangul introduced by King Sejong
in 1446, with the clear goal of encouraging widespread literacy. As one measure of Sejong’s influence, Teachers’ Day
in Korea is celebrated on the birthday of King Sejong.
The Role of Geographical
and Historical Forces
Chris Caldeira
CORE CONCEPT 2 Geographical and historical forces
shape culture.
King Sejong (pictured) is honored in much the same way
that Americans honor George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln. Sejong is praised for creating one of the most
accessible writing/reading systems ever devised with
simple, consistent phonetic rules. Hangul’s accessibility is
evident when contrasted with phonetic rules of the English
language. Although, in theory, each letter of the alphabet
is associated with a distinct sound, in practice, there are
many exceptions to the rule (for example, “ew” has a
different pronunciation when used in the word sew
versus few).
cultural anchors Some cultural component—material (a color, a
mascot, a book) or nonmaterial (a belief, value, norms, cherished
symbol)—that elicits broad consensus among members of
its importance also allows debate and dissent about its exact
meaning (Ghaziani and Baldassarri 2011).
Culture is shaped by a history—the cumulative impact
of past events—and geography that encompasses such
things as location, terrain, and natural resources. Without
a doubt, the geographic location of the Korean Peninsula
next to three powerful neighbors—Japan, China, and former Soviet Union—competing to control it has shaped
Korean culture. Japan ruled the peninsula from 1910 to
end of World War II, when it surrendered to United States
and Allied forces. Upon Japan’s surrender, the Korean
Peninsula was divided in half along the 38th parallel.
U.S. military forces occupied the southern half and Soviet
forces occupied the northern half. When the North Korean
military invaded South Korea in 1950, the United States
took the lead, providing 90 percent of the troops to fight
alongside South Koreans. The U.S. government supported
South Korea, seeing it as a key player in neutralizing the
Soviet Union and China’s influence over Japan weakened
by defeat. On July 27, 1953, the Korean War ended in stalemate, and a 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone (DMZ) or
border was created. On that day, an estimated five million Koreans who were working, visiting, and shopping on
the “wrong” side found themselves stuck, never to return
home or see relatives who were likewise stuck on the other
side. For the most part, North and South Koreans have
not communicated or interacted with each other since
1953. To date, about 20,000 North and South Koreans
have reunited briefly, and an estimated 80,000 Koreans,
now in their mid-80s, are on waiting lists to see relatives.
Some South Koreans travel to newly opened resorts in
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the role of Geographical and Historical Forces
Sociological imagination Transcultural Relationships
The division of North and South Korea has helped to
forge transcultural relationships between people from
different cultural traditions for more than 60 years. The
photos illustrate four examples of such relationships. The
upper left photo shows North Koreans waving good-bye
to South Korean relatives who recently crossed the border
to visit them at a resort in North Korea. That visit marked
the first time, since 1953, that they have seen or otherwise
communicated. The top right photo captures cultural
exchanges where U.S. soldiers learn Korean culture,
including the art of calligraphy. The bottom left photo
shows a Korean-born boy with his adopted American
SSGT Cohen A. Young, USAF
AP Photo/Korea Pool, Jeon Yeon-ho
grandmother. Their relationship can be traced to a partnership formed in 1955 between Korean government,
the U.S. government, and Holt International Children’s
Services to find homes for Korean children orphaned as a
result of the Korean War. The adoption program remains
in place today. To date, American parents have adopted
120,000 Korean children (McGinnis 2007, Holt International Children Services 2013). In the bottom right photo
a North Korean soldier looks through the window from
the North Korean side of the border, at then- Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton as she toured the demilitarized zone
on the South Korean side of the border.
Cherie Cullen
Chris Caldeira
North Korea that are isolated from that county’s population (Korean Overseas Information Service 2006). About
100 South Korean firms employ tens of thousands of
North Koreans who work in a special industrial zone
within North Korea (CNBC 2010).
This history and geography have affected the personal
lives and culture of Koreans on both sides of the DMZ.
Today, North Korea possesses a communist-style government and has one of the most isolated and centrally
53
planned economies in the world. South Korea, on the other
hand, is a republic, and it has the 15th largest economy as
measured by gross domestic product (GDP).
Another key factor related to geography that has shaped
Korean culture is that the peninsula is resource-poor, most
notably with regard to oil. Thus both North and South Korea
are especially vulnerable to any event that might affect
prices or disrupt the flow of oil into the country. Contrast
this with the United States and the abundant resources and
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Chapter 3 Culture
oil found within its borders. One key event that launched
a consumption-oriented culture in the United States was
discovery of the Spindletop, a Texas oil field in 1901. That
discovery made the United States the largest producer of
oil at the time and the most powerful nation in the world.
“Oil was the new currency of the industrialized world, and
America was rich.” Few Americans grasped the significance
of their energy wealth, and most took their “subterranean
wealth for granted” (Halberstam 1986, p. 87). Until the
mid-1970s, the United States produced all the oil it consumed, and even today it is the world’s second larger producer of oil, extracting about seven million barrels a day,
enough to meet half the domestic demand (U.S. Energy
Information Administration 2013).
These contrasting histories shape American and Korean
folkways regarding energy use. Consider that the South
Korean folkways of opening the refrigerator door only as
wide and as long as necessary to remove an item works to
conserve energy. The American folkway of opening the
refrigerator door and leaving it wide open to look inside
and decide what to eat wastes energy. Most North Koreans
do not own refrigerators and they follow a folkway of shopping for food daily or preserving food using salt (Yoo 2009).
In summary, South and North Korea’s conservationoriented folkways are rooted in circumstances of resource
shortages. To understand this connection, recall a time
when your electricity or water was turned off. Think
about the inconvenience you experienced after a few
minutes and how it increased after a few hours. The idea
that one must conserve available resources takes root.
People take care to minimize the number of times they
open the refrigerator door. Now imagine how a permanent resource shortage or almost total dependence on
other countries for resources can affect people’s lives. In
contrast, you can imagine how a greater abundance of
resources breaks down conservation-oriented behaviors.
Culture as a Tool for the Problems
of Living
CORE CONCEPT 3 Culture provides a variety of
formulas that enable individuals to adjust to the
challenges of being human.
Anthropologist George Murdock (1945) distinguished
between cultural universals and particulars. Cultural
universals are things all cultures have in common. Every
cultural universals Things all cultures have in common.
cultural particulars Include the specific responses or practices
that cultures have put in place to direct the use of things like
natural resources and to handle inevitable challenges of being
human.
Chris Caldeira
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All cultures establish a language to allow people to
communicate with each other. In that regard, language is a
cultural universal. But there are hundreds of different symbol
systems in the world, such as the alphabet with 26 letters
that can be combined to represent millions of words including
“Chinese Grace Church.” The Chinese characters also convey
that the church is Chinese and Christian. One is struck by the
fact that the two symbol systems are so different yet convey the
same meaning. The alphabet is a cultural particular and so is the
Chinese character system.
culture has natural resources such as trees, plants, and
rocks that people put to some use. Cultural universals also
include the challenges every culture must address. Those
challenges include containing emotions, satisfying hunger, quenching thirst, channeling sexual desire, eliminating human waste, perpetuating the species, and finding
ways to die with dignity. Cultural particulars include the
specific responses or practices that cultures have put in
place to direct the use of things like natural resources and
to handle inevitable challenges of being human.
Consider hunger. All people become hungry and every
culture establishes formulas for satisfying appetite. One
indicator of a culture’s influence is that not everything
that is edible is defined as such. For example, insects such
as grasshoppers, locusts, and ants are edible and are an
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Sergeant Michael Connors excellent source of protein, but not every culture chooses
to eat them. Dogs and snakes are among the foods defined
by some Koreans and other Asian peoples as edible. Most
Americans find it appalling that someone would eat dog
meat, but they have no trouble eating deer, lamb, beef, or
pork. Cultural formulas for relieving hunger not only help
people to “decide” what to eat but “decide” who should
prepare the food, how the food should be served and
eaten, how many meals should be consumed in a day, at
what times meals should be eaten, and with whom one
should eat.
South Korean formulas for satisfying hunger center also
around kimchi, a spicy cabbage dish that is served with
every meal. Rice is also a staple of the South Korean diet.
Much of the American diet is affected by corn. Corn (in
one form or another) appears in soft drinks, canned foods,
candy, condensed milk, baby food, jams, instant coffee,
instant potatoes, and soup, among other things (Visser
1986). Like corn, rice and the by-products of rice plants
have many uses: to feed livestock; to make soap, margarine, beer, wine, cosmetics, paper, and laundry starch;
to warm houses; to provide inexpensive fuel for steam
engines; to make bricks, plaster, hats, sandals, and raincoats; and to use as packing material to prevent items from
breaking in shipping.
Culture also provides formulas for containing and
expressing social emotions, internal bodily sensations
that we experience in relationships with other people.
Empathy, grief, love, guilt, jealousy, and embarrassment
are a few examples of social emotions. Grief, for instance,
is felt at the loss of a relationship; love reflects the strong
attachment that one person feels for another person; jealousy can arise from fear of losing the affection of another
(Gordon 1981). People do not simply express emotions
directly, however. Rather, they interpret, evaluate, modify,
and suppress bodily sensations upon considering “feeling
rules” (Hochschild 1976).
Feeling rules are norms that specify appropriate ways
to express the internal sensations. They also define sensations that one should feel toward another person. In the
dominant culture of the United States, for example, samesex friends are supposed to like one another but not feel
anything resembling romantic love. It is also generally
unacceptable for same-sex people to hold one another or
to “celebrate” their friendship by holding hands in public.
In this regard, the U.S. Army publishes a list of “must-know
items” about South Korea for American soldiers stationed
there. It informs them that their feeling rules do not apply
in South Korea. One item says, “Don’t be surprised to see
two Korean women or men walking arm in arm. They are
just good friends and there is nothing sexual implied”
(U.S. Army 1998).
Feeling rules can also apply to the social emotions people feel and display toward political leaders. In the case
of North Korea, it is difficult for Americans and South
Chris Caldeira
Culture as a tool for the Problems of living 55
Music—including the words and the way artists dress and
present themselves—conveys feeling rules. Some critics argue
that K-pop is so well received around the world because of “the
delicate way” its artists represent love and other emotions. K-pop
songs are “sweeter, romantic in a beautiful way” and absent the
physical, often raw, sexuality of songs American artists perform
(Ravina 2009).
Koreans to imagine how much Kim Il-sung, the country’s founding and “eternal” president, and his son Kim
Jong-il, and now grandson Kim Jong-un dominate North
Korea’s emotional life, culture, and landscape (McGeown
2003, Winzig 1999). Even defectors and outside observers
maintain that most North Koreans feel genuine emotion
for their leaders, especially for the founder, Kim Il-sung
(Demick 2010). One defector recalled the emotions he felt
when he took ideology classes in college: “I cried often. I
was so touched by the consideration Kim Il-sung showed
for his people” (Kristof 2005). Why do North Koreans
social emotions Internal bodily sensations that we experience in
relationships with other people.
feeling rules Norms that specify appropriate ways to express
internal sensations.
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Chapter 3 Culture
feel such emotion for leaders who, by many accounts,
have mismanaged the country? Programs and activities in
North Korea offer some answers:
●
●
●
●
In North Korea, students from nursery school through
college take hundreds of hours of coursework that
focuses on the lives and accomplishments of the three
Kims, but especially those of the country’s founder.
People, places, and objects connected to Kim Il-sung
are treated as sacred. As Helen-Louise Hunter writes, in
Kim Il-sung’s North Korea, “His parents, grandparents,
wife, and oldest son are still worshipped as an extension of Kim. Objects that he touched on his visits to
collective farms or universities are covered with glass or
draped with a veil” (Winzig 1999).
An estimated 80 percent of the titles in any given bookshop are about or written by the Kims. There are no dissident authors in North Korea to challenge the Kim’s
writings (Sharp 2005, Winzig 1999).
Major buildings and institutions are named after the
Kims, and there are more than 40,000 Kim Il-sung
Revolutionary Thought Study Rooms in the country
(Koreascope 1998, Winzig 1999).
The Transmission of Culture
For the most part, people do not question the beliefs they
hold, the values they follow, the norms to which they
conform, the symbols they use, or the words they use to
communicate and think about the world “any more than a
baby analyzes the atmosphere before it begins to breathe
it” (Sumner 1907, p. 76). Nor are people usually aware of
other ways of thinking and behaving, because much of
their culture was in place before they were born. Thus,
people think and behave as they do simply because they
know no other way. And, because these behaviors and
thoughts seem natural, we lose sight of the fact that culture
is learned.
CORE CONCEPT 4 Culture is learned.
Parents transmit to their offspring via their genes a biological heritage that is common to all humans yet uniquely
individual. The genetic heritage common to humans gives
us a capacity to learn and speak a language, to stand upright,
and to use our fingers and thumbs to grasp objects, and
many other capabilities. If these traits seem overly obvious, consider that they allow humans to speak innumerable languages, perform countless movements, and devise
and use many inventions and objects (Benedict 1989).
Regardless of their physical appearance (for example,
eye shape and color, hair texture and color, skin color),
babies are destined to learn the ways of the culture into
which they are raised. That is, our genes endow us with
our human physical characteristics, but not our cultural
characteristics. We cannot assume that someone is part
of a particular culture simply because he or she looks like
someone we expect to come from that culture. This fact
becomes obvious to Korean American youth who travel
to South Korea as part of cultural immersion programs.
“Many say they have never felt so American as when they
are slurping noodles in Korea. Even their slurps have an
American accent” (Kristof 1995, p. 47).
The Role of Language
Human genetic endowment gives us a brain that is flexible enough to allow us to learn the languages spoken (or
signed) by the people around us. As children learn words
and the meanings of words, they learn about their culture
and what is important to it. They also acquire a tool that
enables them to think about the world, interpret their
experiences, establish and maintain relationships, and
convey information.
For example, in Korean society, it is nearly impossible
to carry on a conversation, even among siblings, without
considering age. This is because age is an exceedingly
important measure of status: Korean language acknowledges the importance of age by its use of special agebased hierarchical titles for everyone. In fact, even words
a person uses to address a sibling acknowledges his or
her age in relation to the person speaking. This is true
even if the sibling is a twin, because one twin was born
first. Furthermore, Korean forms of address do not allow
speakers to refer to elder brothers or sisters by their first
names. A boy addresses his elder brother as hyung and his
elder sister as muna; a girl addresses her elder brother as
oppa and her elder sister as unni. Regardless of gender, however, people always address their younger siblings by their
first names (Kim and Kirby 1996).
Consider another example of how language channels
thinking. Americans use the word my to express “ownership” of people or things over which they do not have
exclusive rights: my mother, my school, my country. The
use of my reflects the American preoccupation with the
needs of the individual over those of the group.
These language differences suggest that people see
the world through the language(s) they have learned. The
mind—or more precisely, the linguistic systems in our
minds—give order to a kaleidoscope of images, sounds,
and impressions bombarding us. The words we have at our
disposal allow us to organize the world, to notice some
things and not others, and to ascribe significance to what
we do notice. Keep in mind that when we learn a language,
we become parties to “an agreement to communicate and
organize our thoughts in a particular way” (Whorf 1956,
pp. 212–214). Linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf
advanced the linguistic relative hypothesis, which states
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Katie Caputo
transcultural Diffusion 57
The sound coming from a bird prompts a speaker of English to
think that the bird is singing, whereas it leads a speaker of
Korean to think that the bird is weeping. While it is possible
to convey to English speakers the Korean association of
the sound with weeping, it is more difficult to convey what
this association feels like from a Korean perspective to an
American who feels a kind of joy when they hear “songs”
coming from birds.
that “no two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be
considered as representing the same social reality.” The
world’s languages label “distinct worlds, not merely the
same world with different labels attached” (Sapir 1949,
p. 162). When people speak different languages, the
same physical evidence does not lead to the same interpretation. So, for example, the sound coming from a bird
leads a speaker of English to think that the bird is singing,
whereas it leads a speaker of Korean to think that the bird
is weeping. Although the Korean and English languages
channel thinking in different ways, do not assume that
communication between the two speakers is impossible.
It may take some work, but it is possible to translate one
language into the other.
event that a child experiences—being born, being fed,
being cleaned, being talked to, toilet training, talking,
playing, and so on—involves people. Those in the child’s
life may include a father, mother, grandparents, brothers, sisters, playmates, other adult relatives, neighbors,
babysitters, and others (Wallace 1952). All these people
consciously or unconsciously expose and pass on to
that child their own “versions” of culture, emphasizing
aspects they believe children should know. The child,
especially as he or she ages, may accept, reject, or modify
those versions, and even seek new cultural experiences.
Consider the case of Kim Il-sung, the founding president of North Korea. Kim Il-sung’s father raised him as
Christian. As a youth, Kim attended church regularly,
even playing the organ. However, when he took power
in 1948, he abolished Christianity in the country, “keeping a couple of churches for show but staffing them with
actors and actresses to impress foreign visitors with his
tolerance” (Kristof 2005, p. 25). The case of Kim Il-sung
suggests that individuals cannot be viewed as passive
agents who simply absorb or stay within the culture
around them.
Transcultural Diffusion
Most people tend to think that the material and nonmaterial culture that surrounds them is “homegrown”—
that it originated in their society. The toothbrush is
believed to be a Chinese invention (1498); buttons are
considered a Greece invention (770 BC), and potatoes
are believed to have originated in what is now Peru
more than 8,000 years ago. The point is that most people tend to underestimate the extent to which familiar
ideas, materials, products, and other inventions are connected to or are borrowed outright from foreign sources
(Liu 1994).
CORE CONCEPT 5 People borrow material and
nonmaterial culture from other societies.
The process by which an idea, an invention, or some
other cultural item is borrowed from a foreign source
is called transcultural diffusion. The word borrow is
The importance of individual Experiences
The information presented thus far may seem to suggest
that culture is a blueprint that guides, even determines,
thought and behavior. If that were true, all people who
share a culture would be replicas of one another. Of
course, they are not. Why are we not cultural replicas?
A baby enters the world and becomes part of an already
established set of human relationships. Virtually every
linguistic relativity hypothesis The idea that “no two languages
are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the
same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are
distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels
attached” (Sapir 1949, p. 162).
transcultural diffusion The process by which an idea, an invention,
or some other cultural item is borrowed from a foreign source.
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Chapter 3 Culture
used in the broadest sense: It can involve stealing, imitating, learning, purchasing, or being forced to use an
idea, an invention, or some other item from a culture
considered foreign. The opportunity to borrow occurs
whenever people from different cultures make contact,
whether face-to-face, over the phone, or through televised broadcasts, Skype, or other platforms that mediate
communication.
Basketball, considered a U.S. invention, has been borrowed by people in 213 countries (Federation of International Basketball 2013). Baseball, another U.S. invention,
has been borrowed by people in more than 90 countries
(World Baseball Classic 2013). Instances of opportunities
for transcultural diffusion are endless and can easily be
found by skimming the newspaper headlines. Consider
the following examples:
●
●
●
●
“North Korea Allows Foreigners to Take Mobile Phones
In” (ABC Online 2013)
“Johnny Rockets Invading South Korea” (Fast Casual
2013)
“Super Bowl Pistachio Ad to Feature ‘Gangnam Style’
Artist” (Nelson 2013)
“[Korean] Universities Lure Foreign Students” (Korea
Joong Ang Daily 2010)
People of one society do not borrow ideas, materials,
or inventions indiscriminately. Instead, borrowing is
almost always selective. That is, they are choosy about
which features of the item they adopt. Even the simplest
invention is really a complex of elements, including various associations and ideas of how it should be used. Not
surprisingly, people borrow the most concrete and most
tangible elements and then develop new associations
and shape the item to serve new ends (Linton 1936). One
might be surprised to learn that male circumcision in
South Korea can be traced to contact with the U.S. military during the Korean War. Koreans, however, depart
from the American practice of circumcising male babies
at birth. In fact, only one percent of South Korean babies
are believed to be circumcised at birth; most circumcisions occur during the elementary and middle school
years (Ku et al. 2003).
In contrast to South Korea, the North Korean government limits transcultural diffusion opportunities by
restricting access to information from the outside world.
With rare exceptions, the 22.5 million people of North
Korea cannot receive mail or calls from outside the
country. Only the most elite have access to the Internet.
Nor can they travel beyond their country’s borders.
culture shock The strain that people from one culture
experience when they must orient themselves to the ways of a
new culture.
Corporal Kim Kyu-ho, Eighth Army Public Affairs
58
Hip-hop is believed to have emerged in the 1970s in black Puerto
Rican communities of South Bronx, New York. Since that time,
hip-hop has diffused across the globe. Although Korean artists
have borrowed this hip-hop style, the political issues confronted
through the lyrics concern Korean youth, such as intense
pressures put on them to succeed in school and reunification of
North and South Korea.
Before January 15, 2013, North Korean officials confiscated mobile phones from visitors while they were in
the country but now allow them to keep them. Visitors,
however, must make calls through a state-run provider,
and they cannot make calls to people and businesses
inside of North Korea (BBC 2013, Colker 2013). Security officials assign escorts, and inspect and delete some
photographs from cameras upon departure (Branigan
2010). Although the North Korean government restricts
transcultural diffusion, North Koreans, especially those
living along the border with China, find ways to acquire
illicit radios, mobile phones, CD players, stereos, and
televisions, which offer access to a world beyond North
Korea (Mac-Kinnon 2005, Caryl and Lee 2006). In the
past decade, North Korea has issued visas to Americans
and other foreigners to attend important festivals and
celebrations (BBC News 2005). Foreign reporters covering some of the events learned, to their surprise, that the
Da Vinci Code was a hit and Celine Dion songs are popular
(Branigan 2010).
CORE CONCEPT 6 The home culture is usually the
standard that people use to make judgments about
another culture.
Most people come to learn and accept the ways of their
culture as natural. Thus, when they encounter foreign cultures they can experience mental and physical strain that
comes with orienting to new ways of thinking and behaving. Sociologists use the term culture shock to describe
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No Borders, No Boundaries The Korean Wave
Sociologists define popular culture as any aspect of
culture that is embraced by the masses within and
outside of that society from which it is believed to
originate. Examples include a sandwich (such as the Big
Mac), a doll (such as Barbie), a television show (such
as Desperate Housewives), a book (50 Shades of Grey),
a movie (Twilight), an item of clothing (such as blue
jeans), and a persona (such as “Gangnam Style”). Any
analysis of popular culture must consider the industries
that sell and market it, including the ways by which
it reaches the masses: whether it be via commercials,
television programs, radio, YouTube, or newspapers—to
name a few. The “Korean Wave” (hallyu in Korean) is
a term used to capture the surge in the international
visibility of Korean popular culture beginning in East
Asia (1990s) and eventually reaching Europe, Central
and South America, and the United States. The wave is
driven, most notably by Korean television dramas and
pop music (K-pop), although the country’s literature,
cuisine, fashion, and other music genres are also part of
this wave.
Because the Korean Wave involves the export of
Korean popular culture, it is a transnational phenomenon. The South Korean government has played a
major role in “spreading of Korean brands and culture
worldwide,” opening Korean cultural centers in countries
such as Australia, Spain, Indonesia, and the Philippines
to introduce Korean cultural products. The government
upgraded South Korea’s communication infrastructure
and established agencies dedicated to promoting K-pop
that strain that comes with transnational encounters.
That strain comes from adjusting to a new language and
from realizing that the behaviors and responses learned
in the home culture do not apply in the foreign setting.
The intensity of culture shock depends on several factors:
(1) the extent to which the home and foreign cultures
differ, (2) the level of preparation, and (3) the circumstances (such as vacation, job transfer, or war) surrounding
the encounter. Some cases of culture shock are so intense
and unsettling that people become ill. Among the symptoms are “obsessive concern with cleanliness, depression,
compulsive eating and drinking, excessive sleeping, irritability, lack of self-confidence, fits of weeping, nausea”
(Lamb 1987, p. 270).
Minor league outfielder for the Charlotte Stone Crabs
Kyeong Kang experienced culture shock when he moved
with his family from South Korea to Norcross, Georgia,
when he was 14 years old. His family moved to the
globally and as a tourist attraction (Korean Communication Commission 2011). In addition, the three largest
music agencies in South Korea recruited talent, crafted
the K-pop style, and marketed it as a global product.
Those agencies are SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment,
and YG Entertainment. At the time of this writing, the
best known Korean artist was Psy (“Gangnam Style”),
and best-known Korean girl and boy groups were Big
Bang, TVXQ, 2PM, Girls’ Generation, and the Korean
American Far East Movement (“Like a G6”). Two Korean
Americans—Johnny Noh and Paul Han—of Allkpop.com
website (2010) report 2 million hits each month, with
about 40 percent from fans based in the United States.
Noh and Han believe that “Korea has the idol formula
down pat; they are very polished in their mannerisms on
stage and in society. Fans are able to fall in love not only
with artists’ music, but their personalities as well”
(Garcia 2010).
As one measure of the effort Korean pop groups
expend, Girls’ Generation, a nine-member female pop
group, can introduce themselves in four languages—
Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese. The group
believes that learning foreign languages is the key
to reaching audiences outside of South Korea (Wall
Street Journal 2010). “We’ve been really focusing on
the language these days, especially since we want to
be able to connect with our foreign fans. It takes time,
patience, and a lot of practice but we really wanna be
able to express ourselves to our foreign fans”
(Casper 2010).
United States so he could play high school baseball. Kang
experienced culture shock because he “didn’t know any
English at all” when he first came to the United States.
Other adjustments Kang remembers relate to not having to wear uniforms in school, the lack of respect for
elders, and McDonalds with no shrimp burgers on the
menu (Gantt 2010). As another example, Tiffany, who is
one of two Americans in the nine-member group Girls’
Generation, points to a number of challenges she experienced adapting to Korean culture: “I thought I would
be able to adjust, because my parents spoke Korean at
home. But I didn’t imagine how different it could be.
American culture is so open compared to Korean culture,
which is really conservative. So I would be, like ‘Hi!’ and
they were like, ‘You don’t say “Hi!” you bow!’” (Seabrook
2012, p. 94).
Do not assume that culture shock is limited to experiences with foreign cultures. People can also experience
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Chapter 3 Culture
reentry shock, or culture shock in reverse, upon returning
home after living in another culture. In fact, some researchers have discovered that many people find it surprisingly
difficult to readjust to the return home after spending a
significant amount of time elsewhere. As in the experience
of culture shock, they face a situation in which differences
jump to the forefront.
The intensity of reentry shock depends on an array
of factors, including (1) the reason for being in the host
culture, (2) the length of time lived in the host culture, and
(3) the extent of the returnee’s immersion in the everyday
lives of people in the host culture. Symptoms of reentry
shock are essentially the mirror image of those associated
with culture shock. They include panic attacks (“I thought
I was going crazy”), glorification of the host culture, nostalgia for the foreign ways, panic, a sense of isolation or
estrangement, and a feeling of being misunderstood
by people in the home culture. This reflection by one
American returning to the United States after living in
South Korea illustrates:
“You find it hard to accept some of the ways people do things
at home, and you find yourself questioning habits and
customs that have been a part of your life for a long time.
The main way I felt this to be the case was with the American
health care system. After experiencing amazing health care
in Korea, I wondered why America’s system is so complicated
and so expensive. When in Korea, I could drop into a small
hospital (they were almost on every corner), see a doctor
within 10 minutes, pay $7, and get a prescription that I got
filled within 3 minutes at the pharmacy downstairs.”
(Catbird in America 2011)
Although many people expect to have problems adjusting
to a stay in a foreign culture and even prepare for such
difficulties, most do not expect to have trouble adjusting
upon return to their home culture. Because reentry shock
is unexpected, many people become anxious and confused
and feel guilty about having problems with readjustment
(“How could I possibly think the American way was
anything but the biggest and the best?”). In addition,
they may worry about how family, friends, and other
acquaintances will react to their critical views of the home
reentry shock Culture shock in reverse; it is experienced upon
returning home after living in another culture.
ethnocentrism A viewpoint that uses one culture, usually
the home culture, as the standard for judging the worth of
foreign ways.
cultural genocide An extreme form of ethnocentrism in which
the people of one society define the culture of another society
not as merely offensive, but as so intolerable that they attempt to
destroy it.
culture; they may be afraid that others will view them as
unpatriotic.
The experience of reentry shock points to the transforming effect of an encounter with another culture (Sobie
1986). That the returnees go through reentry shock means
that they have experienced up close another way of life
and that they have come to accept the host culture’s norms,
values, and beliefs. Consequently, when they come home,
they see things in a new light.
One reason people experience culture and reentry
shock is that they hold the viewpoint of ethnocentrism.
That is, they use one culture as the standard for judging
the worth of foreign ways. From this viewpoint, one way
is the center of everything, and all other ways are “scaled
and rated with reference to it” (Sumner 1907, p. 13). Thus,
other cultures are seen as “strange,” or worse, as “inferior.”
Ethnocentrism
Several levels of ethnocentrism exist. Arguably the
more harmless type of ethnocentrism is simply defining
foreign ways as peculiar, as did some Americans who
attended the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul,
South Korea. Upon learning that some Koreans eat dog
meat, some tourists made jokes about it. People speculated about the consequences of asking for a doggy bag,
and they made puns about dog-oriented dishes: Great
Danish, fettuccine Alfido, and Greyhound as the favorite fast food (Henry 1988). Keep in mind that Koreans
don’t eat their pet dogs; rather, they eat a “special breed
of large tan-colored dogs raised especially for canine
cuisine” (Kang 1995, p. 267). In fact, Koreans who eat
dogs would argue that Americans who eat pigs, cows,
chickens, and lambs are in no position to judge them
(Kang 1995).
The most extreme and destructive form of ethnocentrism is cultural genocide, in which the people of
one society define the culture of another society not as
merely offensive, but as so intolerable that they attempt to
destroy it. There is overwhelming evidence, for example,
that Japanese tried to exterminate Korean culture between
1910 and 1945. After Japan annexed Korea in 1910,
Japanese became the official language, Koreans were given
Japanese names, Korean children were taught by Japanese
teachers, Korean literature and history were abandoned,
ancient temples—important symbols of Korean heritage—
were razed, the Korean national anthem was banned, and
the Korean flag could not be flown. Even Korean flowers
were banned, as Japanese officials forced Koreans to dig
up their national flowers and plant cherry trees (Kang
1995). Japanese brutally suppressed all resistance on the
part of Korean people. When Koreans tried to declare their
right to self-determination in March 1919, thousands of
people were injured or killed in clashes with the Japanese
military.
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Subcultures 61
Sociologist Everett Hughes (1984) identifies yet another
type of ethnocentrism where
“One can think so exclusively in terms of his own social
world that he simply has no set of concepts for comparing
one social world with another. He can believe so deeply in
the ways and the ideas of his own world that he has no point
of reference for discussing those of other peoples, times, and
places. Or he can be so engrossed in his own world that he
lacks curiosity about any other; others simply do not concern
him.” (p. 474)
Another type of ethnocentrism is reverse ethnocentrism, in which the home culture is regarded as inferior
to a foreign culture. People who engage in this kind of
thinking often idealize other cultures as utopias. For
example, they might label Korean culture as a model
of family and filial piety and ignore the fact that the
divorce rate is among the world’s highest, prompting the
South Korean government to institute a mandatory waiting period of one to three months before courts grant a
divorce (Korean Herald 2012, Cho 2012). People who
engage in reverse ethnocentrism not only idealize other
cultures but also reject any information that contradicts
their view.
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism is an antidote to ethnocentrism.
Cultural relativism means two things: (1) that a
foreign culture should not be judged by the standards of
a home culture and (2) that a behavior or way of thinking
must be examined in its cultural context—that is, in terms
of that culture’s values, norms, beliefs, environmental
challenges, and history. Critics of cultural relativism maintain that such a perspective encourages an anything-goes
point of view, discourages critical assessment, and portrays
all cultures as equal in value, regardless of obviously cruel
practices (Geertz 1984,p. 265).
In response to this criticism, there is no question that
notions of rightness and wrongness vary across cultures,
and if we look hard enough, we can probably find a “culture in which just about any idea or behavior exists and
can be made to seem right” (Redfield 1962, p. 451). But
that is not the purpose of cultural relativism. Ideally, cultural relativism is a perspective that aims to understand a
culture on its own terms, not to condone or discredit it.
More than anything, cultural relativism is a point of view
that acts as a check against an uncritical acceptance a home
culture, narrow thinking, and unsympathetic portrayals
(Geertz 1984).
For example, whereas most Americans cannot understand why some Koreans eat dog meat, most Koreans are
equally appalled that many Americans have such large dogs
as pets and often let dogs lick their faces, and spend so much
money on them when the U.S. population includes many
poor and homeless people. When we consider the historical and environmental challenges that led to the Korean
practice of eating dog meat, this practice might not seem so
unreasonable. Whereas the United States has an abundance
of fertile, flat land for grazing cattle, many Asian countries with limited space, such as North and South Korea,
employ available land to grow crops, not to graze cattle.
Similarly, in light of American feeling rules that see touch
as sexual, thus limiting touch between friends and family,
Koreans might not express shock at the close relationships
many Americans have with their pets, perhaps as a way of
compensating.
Subcultures
CORE CONCEPT 7 Within every society, there are
subcultures that possess distinctive traits that set
them apart from the mainstream culture.
When thinking about cultural variety, the concepts of
subcultures and countercultures are especially useful.
In every society, there are many groups that share some
parts of the mainstream culture but adhere to values,
norms, beliefs, symbols, language, and/or material culture that also set them apart in some way. These groups
are called subcultures. One characteristic of subcultures is that their members are separated or cut off in
varying degrees from those thought to be part of the
mainstream culture. That separation may be complete
or it may be confined to a particular setting such as a
workplace, school cafeteria, place of worship (Korean
church), or a neighborhood. In addition, that separation
may be voluntary, imposed, or some combination of the
two forces.
Often we think we can identify subcultures simply
based on a specific marker such as physical traits, an ethnic
appearance, religious membership, a specific neighborhood, age, gender, dress, or some distinctive marker.
Determining who belongs to a particular subculture,
however, is actually a complex task that must go beyond
simply including anyone who possesses a single social
reverse ethnocentrism A type of ethnocentrism in which the
home culture is regarded as inferior to a foreign culture.
cultural relativism The perspective that a foreign culture should
not be judged by the standards of a home culture and that a
behavior or way of thinking must be examined in its cultural
context.
subcultures Groups that share in some parts of the dominant
culture but have their own distinctive values, norms, beliefs,
symbols, language, or material culture.
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Chris Caldeira
62
attribute or who lives in a certain place. For example, we
might be tempted to think that Koreatown, USA, located
west of downtown Los Angeles is populated by those of
Korean ethnicity. Surprisingly, the largest ethnic group
living there now are Hispanics or Latinos, who make up
54 percent of the population.
Sociologists use the term countercultures in reference
to subcultures that challenge, contradict, or outright reject
the dominant or mainstream culture. Sociologist J. Milton
Yinger (1977) maintains that members of countercultures
feel strongly that the society as structured cannot bring
them satisfaction; some believe that “they have been
caught in very bad bargains, others that they are being
exploited,” and still others think the system is broken
(p. 834). Because countercultures emerge as a critical
response to an existing order, Yinger argues that “every
society gets the countercultures it deserves.” Countercultures express themselves by deploring society’s contradictions, weaknesses, and abandoned traditions and by
attacking “the frustrating social order” (p. 834).
Yinger presents three broad, and at times overlapping,
categories of countercultures:
●
Chris Caldeira
●
●
A Korean American Catholic Church shares many of the cultural
traits of mainstream Catholicism such as the clerical collar worn
by priests and the celebration of Mary and baby Jesus. KoreanAmerican churches also present some cultural traits that set it
apart from mainstream Catholicism. Those traits include priests
who are Korean in appearance, an appearance not typically associated with Catholic priests in the United States, and a representation of Mary and baby Jesus with eyes that are not open wide
but closed and elongated in shape.
countercultures Subcultures that challenge, contradict, or
outright reject the dominant or mainstream culture.
Communitarian utopians withdraw into a separate
community where they can live with minimum interference from the larger society, which they view as
evil, materialistic, wasteful, or self-centered. In the
United States, the Old Order Amish (one of at least
four Amish subcultures) constitutes a communitarian
counterculture in that its members remain largely separate from the rest of the world, organizing their life
so that they do not even draw power from electrical
grids.
Mystics search for “truth and for themselves” and turn
inward in the process. “They do not so much attack society as disregard it, insofar as they can, and float above it
in search of enlightenment” (p. 838). Buddhist monks
constitute a counterculture known as mystics because
they make a point of rejecting the material trappings of
capitalistic society.
Radical activists preach, create, or demand a new
order with new obligations to others. They stay
engaged, hoping to change society and its values.
Strategies to bring about change can include violent
and nonviolent protest. Organizers of the Gay Games
constitute radical activists in that they have rejected
mainstream cultural norms that limit participation in Olympic and other athletic competitions to
the most skilled. Anyone, regardless of ability and
sexual orientation, can qualify for the Gay Games
(Federation of Gay Games 2007). Organizers of the
Gay Games reject the idea that in certain sports, such
as paired figure skating, the competitors must be
male–female pairs.
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No Borders, No Boundaries U.S. Military Presence
in 140 Countries
U.S. presence is welcome, the military might be viewed
as a subculture living within the country. In places where
the U.S. military is not welcome, it is might be viewed as
a counterculture.
The map shows U.S. military personnel are stationed in
140 countries. Depending on the country and the setting
within the country, the U.S. military’s presence can constitute a subculture or a counterculture. In places where
408
81,588
13,618
600
10
© Cengage Learning 2015
0
1–20
21–100
101–1,000
1,001–10,000
10,001–30,000
30,000+
At sea
FiguRE 3.2 Countries and Waters In Which the U.S. Has a Military Presence
Chris Caldeira
Source: Data from Department of Defense (2013), OEMA (2013)
Summary of CorE ConCEpTs
In this chapter, we consider how sociologists think
about culture and about transcultural encounters and
exchanges. We applied the sociological framework to
understand how such encounters influence and change
the people and cultures involved. Although we give
examples that relate to the United States and the Koreas,
we can use the sociological framework to think about
any culture.
CORE CONCEPT 1 Culture is an important, yet elusive concept that consists of material and nonmaterial
components.
Sociologists define culture as the way of life of a people,
specifically the human-created strategies for adjusting
to the environment and to humans and other creatures
that are part of the environment. Material culture is the
physical creations (natural and man-made) to which
people attach meaning. Nonmaterial culture includes
the nonphysical creations. Sociologists are interested in
meanings people assign to material culture, the ways in
which material and nonmaterial culture shapes social
relationships, and the ways material culture shapes
and is shaped by values, norms, beliefs, symbols, and
language
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63
64
Chapter 3 Culture
CORE CONCEPT 2 Geographical and historical forces shape culture.
Sociologists operate under the assumption that culture acts
as a buffer between people and their surroundings. Thus, culture represents responses to historical events and geographic
challenges. The division of the Korean Peninsula into North
and South Korea was a key geographical and historical event
that has affected the personal lives and culture of all Koreans
and 7.5 million American servicemen and women who have
been stationed there over the past 65 years.
CORE CONCEPT 3 Culture provides a variety of formulas that enable individuals to adjust to the challenges
of being human.
Being human presents us with a number of inevitable
challenges. Cultures have developed formulas to help
their members respond to these challenges. Formulas
exist for eliminating human waste; caring for children;
satisfying the need for food, drink, and sex; channeling
and displaying emotions; and eventually dying. There are
even formulas that govern how people feel for political
leaders.
CORE CONCEPT 4 Culture is learned.
Regardless of their physical appearance, people are destined to learn the ways of the culture into which they are
raised. A Korean-born boy, adopted by an American family, will be American in culture. When people learn a language, they simultaneously learn about a culture and what
is important to it. They also acquire a tool that enables
them to think about the world, interpret their experiences,
establish and maintain relationships, and convey information. Regardless of the culture to which we are exposed,
all those who belong to that culture are not replicas of
one another, if only because each person experiences and
learns different slices of the same culture.
CORE CONCEPT 5 People borrow material and nonmaterial culture from other societies.
Cultural diffusion is the process by which an idea, an
invention, or some other cultural item is borrowed from
a foreign source. The borrowing may include imitating,
stealing, purchasing, copying, or learning about something. The opportunity to borrow occurs whenever two
people from different cultures make contact.
CORE CONCEPT 6 The home culture is usually the standard that people use to make judgments about another
culture.
When people encounter a foreign culture, they can
experience mental and physical strain known as culture
shock. One reason people experience culture shock is
that they hold the viewpoint of ethnocentrism. That
is, they use their home culture as the standard for
judging the worth of foreign ways. Sociologists take a
position of cultural relativity when they evaluate a foreign culture. That is, they seek to hold ethnocentrism
in check and work to understand a culture in all its
complexity.
CORE CONCEPT 7 Within every society, there are subcultures that possess distinctive traits that set them
apart from the mainstream culture.
Groups that share in certain parts of the dominant
culture but have their own distinctive values, norms,
beliefs, symbols, language, or material culture are
called subcultures. One characteristic central to all subcultures is that their members are separated or cut off
in some way from other people in the larger culture.
Some subcultures are known as countercultures. That
is, they challenge, contradict, or outright reject the
dominant or mainstream culture. There are three broad,
and at times overlapping, categories of countercultures: communitarian utopians, mystics, and radical
activists.
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Key terms 65
Key Terms
beliefs 49
countercultures 62
cultural anchors 52
cultural genocide 60
cultural particulars 54
cultural relativism 61
cultural universals 54
culture 48
culture shock 58
diffusion 57
ethnocentrism 60
feeling rules 55
folkways 50
globalization 47
language 51
linguistic relativity hypothesis
material culture 49
mores 51
56
nonmaterial culture 49
norms 50
reentry shock 60
reverse ethnocentrism 61
social emotions 55
subcultures 61
values 49
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